


Rings of fire

by 3White_Mage3



Category: The Losers (2010), The Losers - All Media Types
Genre: Time warp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-15
Updated: 2013-08-15
Packaged: 2017-12-23 14:22:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/927531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3White_Mage3/pseuds/3White_Mage3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First installment, hopefully, in a multi-set. The world, which while never nurturing to Jake and Cougs, had been at least tolerant until now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rings of fire

“For Chee-rist’s sake, tell me that they are NOT in the shower again!”

The response from the others in the room was silence from Pooch, who suddenly found an old text to Jolene which he hadn’t answered – very unlike him, given his wife’s aggressive pursuit of what she euphemistically called “interconnectiveness” when her loved one was on a mission and thereby outside of her immediate control zone. Clay reacted with his usual constipated slash confused look, his normal facial expression when confronted with this particular most perplexing of issues, the “friendship” between Sergeant Alvarez and Corporal Jensen. 

“Seriously, does anyone REALLY believe that they’re doing this for the environment? ‘To save water,’ as that brain-addled Mother-fuckin’-Theresa wannabe sorry excuse for a techie has it ‘so that dolphins, starfish, and pink unicorns’ – to hear him – ‘can live’? Do those motherfuckers understand that it is both possible to take a shower alone and still get all the good parts washed up and that it is NOT SO FUCKIN’ funny to be shoving this in peoples’ faces?” The diatribe continued with, “What happened to the days when guys in the barracks had to ‘stretch their legs’ at midnight and just got the job done with no theater?”

“Roque, get over it,” Pooch interjected, in his usual “let’s get past this and move on” peacekeeping sorta way. “They’ve been sleeping in the same bed for over a year now. We knew that, you knew that. What the hell did you think they were doing, reading tarot cards or braiding each other’s hair?”

Clay, demonstrating the leadership acumen which made him the top dog amongst a bunch of Losers, decided to beat a strategic retreat out of the kitchen before his SIC had the chance to force the issue further. It was, at best, a delaying tactic, he knew. And Clay hated being put in the position of playing for time.

Aside from Roque, the team had always been quietly supportive of the relationship between Cougar and Jensen. Each man was the perfect complement to the other. The colonel knew full well that both guys man would lay down his life for any of their teammates. But he had also come to understand that should anything happen to either man, the remaining partner of the couple would wither away, eventually ceasing to exist: Cougar denied the life-giving, megawatt smile that pulled him from the guarded introversion that somedays seemed to threaten to swallow him whole; Jensen unable to cope with all life could throw at him without the solid foundation offered by the older man, the partner who showered him with the attention he craved.

The problem was that with the new hyper-conservative administration in place in Washington times were changing, and not in the direction the Loser’s commander might have wished. It was almost as if time were reversing as the new Administration undid policies and reforms made by the previous one. Clay was increasingly afraid that the semi-tolerant atmosphere that had been slowly developing within parts of the Army over the last few years was rapidly becoming a thing of the past. That don't ask don't tell environment had given the team enough cover to protect Cougar and Jensen. Now he feared for men like his sniper and his comms specialist and what was coming. Men like Roque, good men basically – good at their jobs at least – who had learned to adapt, who had lived through a dozen different policies over the span of their careers, and who knew that the wheel would turn again if you could only keep your head down and the target off your own forehead long enough, would no longer be restrained. 

Clay feared and dreaded the day he would be forced to choose between his second in command and two other members of his team.


End file.
